Any progress reports for CMDK(Medley)?

Any news on their progress so far either good or bad? Their website gives a little bit of info on their plans but nothing really in terms of any progress they are making. I was just hoping that maybe Chuck or someone else had been back down or talked to the distillery manager and gotten some details on how things are coming along. It would be very cool to see a piece of bourbon history revived and have their business take off and excel in the modern day market.

Re: Any progress reports for CMDK(Medley)?

Thanks for doing a little footwork to put info together.

The news piece from 2009 talks of "distilling this fall" but I haven't heard of them starting up the stills yet. I drove by the site on a mid-week day last month and didn't see any obvious distilling activity, but it looked like an agricultural chemical supply company was moving a lot of product through what looked like it would be the bottling hall.

Of course, half the parking lot was underwater that day, so maybe I shouldn't draw conclusions.

Re: Any progress reports for CMDK(Medley)?

Angostura is owned by CL Financial. If you Google it, the first suggested additional search term that comes up is "collapse." It is/was a very large (meaning rich) financial services company in Trinidad and Tobago. It collapsed in the 2008 financial crises. All of its plans were based on having a lot of money to invest in LDI, CMDK, and other facilities and interests. As it is, they can't come up with enough cash to pay the supplier who makes the bottles for Angostura bitters. (Hence last's year's shortage.) Both LDI and CMDK are for sale.

Re: Any progress reports for CMDK(Medley)?

Yes, in that its parent company, CL Financial, was nationalized, but the latest news is that they're trying to figure out a way to give it back to the Duprey family.

CL is an insurance company. Insurance companies invest their reserves. That's universal. But CL is unusual in 'investing' its money by buying and running businesses like Angostura. It owns something like 30 companies that between them own 72 businesses. They're in lots of other things besides alcohol.